CHANGE MAKER: For the grater good: Cheese farm and Eskom collaboration restores Overstrand power

‘South Africans are very good at rolling up their sleeves and helping. You just have to reach out and ask.’

When things fall apart, it’s time to maak ’n plan (make a plan). And things did fall apart big time two weeks ago when the Wicked Witch of the West flung her gale-force fury at the Western Cape.

Within hours, trees that had stood for 100 years were uprooted as though by a monster giant, rooftops took to the skies and electricity poles went down, leaving a pile of pick-up sticks and coils of fallen wires.

Everybody loves to blame Eskom for not getting things back up quickly enough, but even with the best will in the world, a damaging wind driven by climate change is a tough opponent for any utility.

Although power had been restored to many of the main centres, the more rural areas such as the Overstrand were battling. Twelve days without power was becoming a disaster. Eskom had no clear timeline for restoration. Homeowners, businesses and farmers had thrown in the towel. Something had to happen.

Raymond Siebrits from Klein River Cheese outside the little village of Stanford takes up the story. “We thought, why not offer our services to help the local municipality with Eskom’s restoration efforts? We sent through our messages, not knowing whether it would take up our offer. At least we had tried.”

Midday on Friday, 22 May, the call came through from Eskom’s technical team to say they were 15 minutes away from the Klein River Cheese farm, where several poles had been knocked down, and they could use some help.

“What they urgently needed,” Siebrits said, “was a digger and extra hands to get new poles into the ground.

“We immediately called a local steel company, Strandveld Steel Projects, for back-up. Without hesitation, they left a busy site to dispatch their heavy machinery.”

Within 30 minutes, teams were digging and prepping lines as the rain came down.

“It was amazing – not even hitting rock-hard ground at 1.5m deep could stop them.”

After a quick change of teeth on the ­digger, the municipal crane trucks lifted new poles skyward, expertly guided by Eskom technicians. After checking and fixing fuses on the remaining segments, power to the Klein River valley R326 segment – including Stanhaven, a nearby residential estate that had been without power for 12 days – was fully restored by 8pm.

“Living without electricity and with no restoration in sight, this became a story of true collaboration: a utility, local government, farmers, local business heroes and neighbours all willing to pick up the phone, say yes and roll up their sleeves.”

Al